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Russell County
Alabama
Genealogy and History
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Biographies
DU BOSE, MRS. MIRIAM
HOWARD, woman suffragist,
born in Russell county, Ala., 28th November, 1862. She is a
daughter of Ann Lindsay and Augustus Howard. Though born in
Alabama, her life has been spent in and near Columbus, Ga.
At an early age she showed marked musical talent, playing
simple melodies before she was tall enough to mount the
piano stool unassisted. At fourteen years of age she began
the study of music under a teacher in Columbus, and studied
there about two years, which was the only instruction she
received. At seventeen she applied for the organist's place
in the First Presbyterian Church of Columbus, and held the
position' until her marriage. She was at that time the
youngest organist in the State. She has composed several
pieces of instrumental music. Her first piece "Rural Polka,"
was composed at the age of fifteen. She performs on the
piano with brilliancy. Gifted in sketching, she has done
some life-like work in that line. For the last three years,
having been aroused to the work of woman's enfranchisement,
she has worked for woman suffrage with heart, pen and purse.
Her articles in its interest are earnest and convincing. She
is vice-president of the Georgia Woman Suffrage Association,
and her busy brain and fingers have originated many schemes
to fill the treasury of that organization. It was her
generosity which made it possible for Georgia to send her
first delegates to the twenty-fourth convention of the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, held in
Washington in January, 1892. The money donated was earned by
her own hands. She has one son. Her home is in Greenville,
Ga.
Source: American Women, Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary
Ashton Rice Livermore, Volume 1, Copyright 1897,
Submitted by Marla
Snow.
HURT, JOEL (Jr.).
Among the younger men of Atlanta possessed of a high order
of business ability, and who by their own efforts have
achieved notable success, is the subject of this sketch. He
was born in Olivet, Russell county, Ala., July 31, 1850, and
is one of four living children of Joel and Lucy A. Hurt. His
father was born and reared on a plantation in Putnam county,
Ga., and was the eldest of eight children of Henry Hurt, a
planter and slave owner, who moved with his entire family to
Russell county, Ala., about the year 1825. His mother is a
daughter of Col. Nimrod W. Long, of Russell county, Alabama.
Joel Hurt was attending school when the war
between the Slates began, but at the age of thirteen, his
three older brothers having joined in the Confederate
service, was taken from school to aid his mother in managing
his father's estate. When the Confederacy fell, the bulk of
the family property, which at the time consisted chiefly in
slaves and Confederate bonds, was swept away. By these
reverses young Hurt was confronted at this early period in
life by a condition of affairs which made it necessary for
him to earn the means to continue his education. But he was
self-reliant, and determined to pursue his studies. At the
age of fifteen he entered Hurtsboro Academy, then taught by
Prof. E. N. Brown, and by periods of work to pay for his
tuition, he was enabled to finish his preparatory course. At
the age of eighteen he entered the University of Georgia,
and graduated with the degree of C. E., in 1871. After
graduating, and just before leaving college, he received an
appointment as assistant engineer under H. P.
Blickensdoerfer, C. K., then engaged in running the
preliminary line for the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad
through the territory of Arizona. After completing this
survey he was engaged on other roads as civil engineer until
1875, when, on account of the almost complete suspension of
railroad building in the South, he located in Atlanta, and
with his brother, E. F. Hurt, engaged in the real estate and
insurance business.
In May, 1876, he was married to Miss Annie Bright
Woodruff, daughter of George W. and Virginia Woodruff, of
Columbus, Ga.
In 1879 Mr. Hurt undertook to revive the Building
and Loan Association in Atlanta. After visits to
Philadelphia and other cities he obtained a charter for the
Atlanta Building and Loan Association, of which he was
secretary and treasurer until its charter expired, a period
of over six years. Through it was invested in homes for
working people about two hundred thousand dollars without
the loss of a single dollar to the members Following the "
Atlanta" were organized a number of other associations
working on the same plan, among them the Home Building and
Loan Association, of which Mr. Hurt is secretary and
treasurer.
In 1882 Mr. Hurt enlisted the business men of
Atlanta in the organization of the Atlanta Home Insurance
Company, of which he was elected secretary. The care, zeal
and efficient manner in which lie discharged the duties of
his position is well known and freely acknowledged by all
intimately acquainted with the successful history of the
company. Business was commenced with a capital of one
hundred and twenty thousand dollars. During the first five
years it has paid three annual dividends of ten per cent,
each to policy holders, and eighty thousand dollars to the
company's stockholders, while the company has now a capital
of two hundred thousand dollars, and a re-insurance reserve
of fifty thousand dollars.
Probably the most beneficent service performed by
Mr. Hurt toward enhancing the good of Atlanta was in behalf
of opening Foster street, now Edgewood avenue. With the
cooperation of Mr. S. M. Inman, he inaugurated the movement
in 1886. The work was regarded by many as impossible, as it
involved the opening of the street through three blocks for
a distance of fifteen hundred feet near the center of the
city, and the widening of Foster street twenty feet for a
distance of one and a quarter miles, besides the building of
an expensive viaduct over the Richmond and Danville Railroad
600 feet long. The opening of this magnificent avenue from
the center of a great city like Atlanta was indeed a great
undertaking worthy of the men who accomplished it. It is the
only street in the city upon which one can stand and see
the entire distance of a mile and a half, and
its benefits will ever increase with the growth of
Atlanta.
In addition to his connection with the
enterprises already named, Mr. Hurt is president of the East
Atlanta Land Company, organized in May, 1887, with a capital
of $600,000. This company owns valuable property in the city
and eastern suburbs; contributed liberally toward the
opening of Foster street or Edgewood avenue, and has
projected plans for doing much for the up-building of
Atlanta.
Mr. Hurt has illustrated by his career of
continued success, what can be accomplished by one possessed
of natural business aptitude, a high sense of honor, and
animated by worthy motives. At an age when most men have
merely laid the foundations of their plans, he has achieved
important and far-reaching results. He has
been a hard, persistent worker, a builder rather than a
speculative dreamer—a man of action instead of wasting time
on fine spun theories. Starting without resources beyond
willing hands and a good, active, clear brain, he holds now
a place of power and influence in the community. He has made
right use of his opportunities, and wherever placed has
acquitted himself admirably. His industry and energy are
qualities suggested in his tone and bearing. He is
deliberate in forming judgments and plans, but firm in
executing plans once adopted. He has demonstrated in every
position he has filled, and in all his undertakings, unusual
tact and rare practical business sense, while confidence in
his honesty and integrity has never been forfeited by a
single act which had the shadow of wrong doing. These
qualities place him as a leader among the younger business
men of public spirit and progressive ideas in Atlanta, and
give promise of continued usefulness and added honors in the
years to come.
Source: History of Atlanta,
Georgia, by Wallace Putnam Read, 1889, Submitted by C.
Anthony
LEE, MARY (GRAVES) GRAVES, vice-president, for Alabama of the
Confederate ladies memorial association of the South, was
born October 15, 1835, in Abbeville District, S. C., and
died in Montgomery September, 1916; daughter of Dr. Thomas
and Harriet (Lomax) Graves, of Abbeville S. C.; niece of
Col. Tennant Lomax (q- v.); granddaughter of Dr. George and
Mary (Scott) Graves; great-granddaughter of Samuel Scott, a
Revolutionary soldier of the South Carolina line. In 1856
she removed with her parents from South Carolina to
Glenville. Some years previous to the War of Secession she
removed with her husband to Lafayette County, Ark. During
the war she and her husband opened both home and private
hospital for the benefit, without charge, to sick and
wounded Confederates. In 1868, their property swept away,
they came to Montgomery to make their home, and opened a
large private hotel. This business she carried on, after her
husband's death until her own demise. She engaged actively
in the patriotic labors of Montgomery women; was member of
Sophie Bibb chapter, U. D. C. ; vice-president, and later
president of the Ladies memorial association of Montgomery,
the oldest patriotic organization in America, concerning the
War of Secession, and as president, caused the placing of
the memorial tablet in the hall of representatives in the
Capitol, Montgomery; was elected vice- president, for
Alabama, of the Confederate States memorial association;
assisted materially, in assembling the money to erect the
Chickamauga monument, Chickamauga Park. She was active in
caring for the inmates of the Soldiers home, Mountain Creek;
vice-president for Alabama Confederate Southern memorial
association. Married: in 1859, to Dr. J. C. Lee, of near
Glenville. Last residence: Montgomery.
Source: History of Alabama
and Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen,
Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke
publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb
Ziegenmeyer
WADDELL, BOSWELL
DEGRAFFENRIED. lawyer, was born August 25, 1865, at
Columbus, Muscogee County, Ga.; son of James Flemming and
Adelaide Victoria (deGraffenried) Waddell, the former who
was a native of Hillsboro, N. C., served during the
Mexican War as a second lieutenant in the
Twelfth U. S. infantry, was appointed U. S.
consul to Matamoros,
Mexico, was captain of a company in the Sixth Alabama regiment, and
raised a battalion of artillery, was
captured at Vicksburg, Miss., was paroled and
served until the close of the war; grandson of
Haynes Waddell who served as first lieutenant in
the War of 1812, and of Dr. Edward and
Martha (Kirkland)
deGraffenried of Columbus, Ga.; great- grandson of Hugh Waddell who
married the daughter of Gen. Francis Nash,
the later who was killed at the battle of
Germantown in the Revolutionary War; great- great-
grandson of Gen. Hugh Waddell who was a
colonial officer and resided in North Carolina.
The deGraffenrieds
came from Switzerland and settled in New Berne, N. C., and the
Kirklands came from Scotland, settling near
Wilmington, Ky. Mr. Waddell was educated at
Columbus and at Seale. He studied law; was
admitted to the bar in April, 1887, at Seale;
became a delegate to the constitutional convention
of 1901, serving on the committees on militia and
local legislation in that body; at the
general election of November, 1902, was elected to
the legislature; and was re-elected in 1903. He is
a Democrat; an Episcopalian; and a
member of the Society of the Cincinnati of
North Carolina. Residence: Seale.
Source: History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama
Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen, Marie Bankhead Owen,
Published by The S. J. Clarke publishing company, 1921;
Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer
WADDELL, GEORGE HOOPER, business man, was born February 9,
1855. in Russell County; son of George H. and Celestia
Roberta (Wynne) Waddell, the former born at Chapel Hill, N.
C., a brother of Maj. James Fleming Waddell (q. v.) ;
removed to Barbour County, and later to Russell County, of
which he was probate judge, and where he was killed by
Wilson's Raiders, April, 1865, his wife dying in November of
the same year. Among other children, George H. Waddell, sr.,
had a daughter, Victoria Celestia, who married Judge A. A.
Evans (q. v.). Mr. Waddell went as a boy to Columbus. Ga.,
in 1866, where he was educated. In 1870. he entered the
cotton business there; in 1886, removed to Birmingham; in
1887 entered the Alabama national bank as cashier; in 1891
was made president of the American national bank; and was
treasurer of South Highlands and State manager for the Union
mutual insurance company of Portland, Me. He is an
Episcopalian; a Mason; Knight of Pythias, and a Mystic Shriner. Married: November 5,
1879, in Columbus, Ga., to Laura, daughter of
T. S. Spear. Children: 1. George H., lr.; 2.
Elliott S.; 3. Celeste Wynne. Residence:
Birmingham.
Source: History of Alabama and
Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen,
Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke
publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb
Ziegenmeyer
WADDELL, JAMES FLEMING, lawyer,
soldier, consul and probate judge, was born in 1826, in
Hillsboro, N. C., and came to Alabama when a young man; was
appointed 2nd lieutenant in the 12th U. S. infantry, and
served in the Mexican war; was appointed consul to Matamoros
in 1849, and was wounded in the attack on the town by
Caravajal's men, in 1851; enlisted in the C. S. Army as
captain of a company in the 6th Alabama infantry regiment,
but later organized a light battery; served his guns at
Baker's Creek and at Vicksburg where he was captured; was
later promoted to the rank of major, and commanded a
battalion consisting of Barrett's, Bellamy's, and Emery's
batteries, and doing faithful service in the Dalton-Atlanta
campaign. He was appointed probate judge of Russell County
in 1865, and elected in 1866, serving in
this capacity until 1868. He practiced law in Seale
during his later years. Last residence:
Seale.
Source: History of Alabama and
Dictionary of Alabama Biography, By Thomas McAdory Owen,
Marie Bankhead Owen, Published by The S. J. Clarke
publishing company, 1921; Submitted by Barb
Ziegenmeyer
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